Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014 Blu-ray Review

Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014 is the theatrical concert film, captured in high definition, of the veteran rock band headlining the Download Festival at Donington Park in Leicestershire, UK on their Let Rock Rule tour.

A 20 song set, Aerosmith touched on almost all of their major hits from every period of their career and, while the energy level seemed the same as it ever was (I saw the band in concert four times in the ’80s starting with their Done with Mirrors tour), the show just didn’t seem to click too much with me. Granted, this was rock and roll, which is a rare commodity these days, so it was not pristine. And Aerosmith was always more a garage band than a band who was going to wow you with their technique, but this show seemed a little too loose, the sort of thing that can often happen to the Rolling Stones. When they’re off, they’re really off. This show wasn’t so off it was terrible, but it just didn’t come together like Aerosmith: Rock for the Rising Sun.

The standouts are the early period songs like “Sweet Emotion”, the opening “Train Kept A-Rollin’”, “Last Child” and “Mama Kin”. The production also helps the concert a lot. Visually, this show looks great, and the Steven Tyler’s outfits haven’t aged since the 70s.

Video Quality

[Rating:4.5/5]

Rocks Donington 2014 gets an AVC/MPEG-4 1080i/60 encodement on Blu-ray from Eagle Rock that looks surprisingly crisp for an interlaced HD production, especially given the constant motion and flashing lights of this live production. There is little in the way of motion artifacts, but we do get the occasional issue with video noise due to the low light videography.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4/5]

Audio is provided in 48kHz/16-bit DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 stereo. The mixes are good, but the separation of sounds isn’t too good. The guitars sound a bit cluttered. High end could be a little scaled back as well, but the midrange and low end offer good punch and musicality. Steven Tyler’s voice also comes through well.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:2/5]

Only a booklet with liner notes, images, and credits plus 2 CDs of the concert are included.

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3.5/5]

Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014 doesn’t quite rock as good as Aerosmith can and still does, but it does supply a great lineup of classic Aerosmith live tracks and will do the trick.